


Naptime pillowtalk

by JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Jack visits Madison, M/M, Season/Series 04, boys talking about feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 03:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21129737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle/pseuds/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle
Summary: Based on the events of Check, Please! episode04.15.





	Naptime pillowtalk

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the events of Check, Please! episode [04.15](http://checkpleasecomic.com/comic/4-15-01).

Jack was lying on his back on top of the quilt when Bitty came in and closed the guest room door with a quiet _snick _behind him.

“Sorry you walked into that,” Bitty said. “Trying to get some rest?”

Only with Bitty’s accent, already thicker after he’d been home a day and a half, it sounded like, “Tryna’ git some rest?”

Jack nodded, then turned on his side so he could see his boyfriend properly.

Bitty was toeing his shoes off, and he looked tired, but not really upset anymore.

“Yeah,” Jack said. “Got in late. Got up early. Then your dad took me to five — no, six — different places. Pretty sure he didn’t need to get the stain for the wood floor in the hall up here two days before Christmas.”

“No, I’d guess not,” Bitty said, lying down next to Jack and curling into his side. “When I got up and Mama said you went out with Coach, I thought it was a grocery run, not an all-day trip. Like they’re trying to keep us apart.”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Jack said.

“No, I don’t really, either,” Bitty said. “I’m just pissy because I wanted to see my boyfriend, and then Mama pulled that with the rooms last night, and then Coach took you all over creation to show you off.”

“That was kind of what it felt like,” Jack said.

“Sorry,” Bitty said again. “Was it too bad, being on display?”

“Bits, I play hockey in front of tens of thousands of people like three times a week,” Jack said.

“Not the same thing.”

“No,” Jack said. “But it was okay. No one had a negative thing to say, and I didn’t get the impression that they were jumping on me as soon as my back was turned. They all knew who I was, though. They’ve had time to get used to it. Helps that your dad was showing me off. People seem to have a lot of respect for him.”

“Yeah,” Bitty said. “They do. I’m glad he likes you, Jack.”

“Me, too,” Jack said. “And I’m glad he likes us, together. He even said so.”

Bitty craned his neck so he could arch a skeptical eyebrow at Jack.

“Really,” Jack said. “He said I’m good for you.”

“Must be the way you keep telling me to eat more protein,” Bitty said.

They lapsed into silence for a few moments, then Jack asked, “What happened with your mom? How did the jam feud come up? I didn’t think you made jam at Christmas time.”

“You don’t,” Bitty said. “I told her, and … well, she reacted about as well as I expected.”

“You expected that?”

“Why do you think I kept it a secret all this time?”

“Why did you tell her now?”

Jack felt rather than saw Bitty’s shrug.

“She said a lot of nice things, about how I shouldn’t have been scared to come home, and I can bring anyone I love,” Bitty said. 

“Anyone?”

“Hush, you. She also said you’re a keeper,” Bitty said. “But she said I’m always their son and they love me, and that was all great, I guess.”

“But?”

“But I kind of felt like I was a little boy again, crying over something silly,” Bitty said. “Like the first time a bee stung me, and I howled for hours, and Mama told me there was no possible way it still hurt. She was right, but still. 

“And it is nice to know that they never had any intention of disowning me, but it would have been nice to know that before, y’know?” Bitty said. “And maybe some of that’s on me, but not all of it. And I kept this whole big part of me secret for so long, to protect them, to protect my relationship with them … it just felt like there’s a lot of me they don’t know, and Mama’s trying to go back to when I was eight years old and told her everything. Like it makes any sense for her to say whether we can sleep together. I’m kind of past that.”

Bitty stopped for breath.

“God, it sounds awful when I say it like this, but it was like I wanted her to know that she didn’t know everything about me,” Bitty said. 

“And you picked the thing that was most likely to hurt?” Jack said.

“Yes?” Bitty said quietly. “But it wasn’t just that. It’s also, if she wants to know me, she has to know the things she doesn’t like so much, too. And I think I do want my parents to know me, to really know me. I was thinking about that, and about sending her a link to my vlog when we get back to Providence, and if she watched that, she’d know about the jam. And I kind of felt guilty at the same time for keeping secrets when she was saying nothing could change our relationship, and I just kind of blurted it out.”

Bitty rolled onto his stomach so he could look down at Jack. “I think it’ll be okay, though,” he said. “Once she stopped reading the riot act to Aunt Judy’s voicemail, I told her that how I make jam has nothing to do with how much I love her, and she should be proud she raised me to make my own judgments and do what I think is best.”

“Kind of hard to argue with that,” Jack said.

“Then I told her we were both tired and I was gonna come up here and take a nap with you,” Bitty said. “And she didn’t follow me, so that’s a win, I guess.”

“Being here together is definitely a win,” Jack said. “Come back down here and go to sleep, bud.”

“Yeah,” Bitty said. “We should sleep now. Because when Aunt Judy gets that message, she is gonna raise holy hell.” 


End file.
